Bling and Lace Upcycled Jean Shorts

My daughter loves clothes. Girly, trendy clothes. She saw some shorts with lace cutouts on the leg that she loved. I about fell over when I saw the price tag. Holy schlamoly, dinner for two at a nice restaurant costs less than these shorts. And that includes martinis and dessert. I knew I could do them for a lot less. So I went for it. 

Luckily, she had a pair of jeans that were a little too short, so all we had to do was find some lace. We went to our local closeout store to look for something lacy. And cheap. I'm not spending good money on something I'm going to chop up. Oh, my no. We found a pink lace shirt for $7.00. Life was good.

I started off by hacking off the legs of the jeans. I used another pair of her shorts to make sure I didn't make them too short. No daughter of mine is wearing Daisy Dukes. At least I'd better not find out about it. Then I tossed them in the washer and dryer so the edges would fray. 

I cut out two v-shaped notches on the sides of the legs and pinned in pieces of the lace, making sure to use the hem of the shirt, so I wouldn't have to re-hem it. Then, off to my trusty sewing machine to sew it in place.

I still had a lot of shirt left and felt the shorts needed a little something, so I cut out some more pieces and pinned them inside the front pockets. This I couldn't do on my sewing machine; I had to do it by hand. Luckily, it didn't take long. Yes, I know the pic sucks. So does my camera.

I thought I was done, until my girly girl tried on the shorts and we realized they were too small in the thighs and inseam. Not pretty. A smiling crotch is not a happy crotch, if you know what I mean. It made no sense, cuz she has other jean shorts that are the same brand and size. So I took one of those pairs and tried again. 

So, I finished the other pair of shorts and decided it needed some bling. I like bling. Tasteful bling, that is. I don't like the "attacked by a Bedazzler" look. I found some silver beads and some pink crystal beads and came up with a pattern.

I glued the beads down first with a tiny dab of beading glue, let it dry, then stitched the beads in place. The glue helps hold the beads in place when I'm sewing, and they stay put where I placed them. Then I turned the shorts inside out and washed and dried them to make sure everything stayed put. Which it did.

Here are both pairs of finished shorts. My girl loves them, especially because they're unique! And I only spent $7.00 for these! Not a bad deal! I am awesome. And modest :)

Until my next project, 

Chris :)